Page tags

Add a new page

Now that the rich pickings in the housing sector have been taken, and the market is going to collapse (and believe it, it's going to collapse in a much bigger way than we've seen up until today, 24th June), all those villains who have made a killing from our mortgage payments need somewhere safe to horde their cash so it doesn't disappear with inflation.

Which, of course, is why the commodities markets have been saturated with speculators looking to repeat the housing fiasco with oil and food.

Futures markets are a good way for companies that rely on specific commodities to protect themselves from unpredictable events in the marketplace, but they're now being exploited purely for commercial gain. And, if enough speculators join the game, the legitimate buyers get dwarfed by the enormous scale of gamblers seeking to simply make some cash with their fortunes.

The problem is that, since we need these commodities to live our lives, we're all basically held hostage to rampant greed of unscrupulous capitalists. And amazingly, our governments have, so far, refused to act against this behaviour, even though it's essential commodities that are being affected.

So, yet another set of bubbles, filled with yet more of my monthly outgoings, and into the pockets of people who already have enough money to survive.

What's telling is how changes to the rules of short-selling were brought in almost immediately, in response to concerns that HBOS and Bradford & Bingley rights-issues were being manipulated by unscrupulous traders. This is a good thing, and protects these institutions and their shareholders from losing out unfairly. However, the rules that allow commodity prices to be manipulated in the way they are haven't been changed, despite millions of poor people, already in poverty, suffering immensely because they can't afford to feed their families (let alone educate them!). So the message is, "we'll act to protect shareholders, but stuff the world's poor".